In today’s gaming news roundup Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are being dragged through the mud because of their poor performance, Dead Island 2 has been delayed, there are a few new game releases, and Activision Blizzard has pulled their business out of China.
Check out these stories and more in our latest gaming news roundup.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are finally out, but not running too well
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet‘s reviews are in and with it, reports that while the game is the next step in the franchise, taking it into an open world, it runs horribly on the Nintendo Switch. A clip of the game has been going viral on Twitter, and it does not look good, even for a Nintendo Switch game. However Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet have been faring well critically so far, with a reception of 77 on Metacritic, as of writing. The games do release today so check out the performance of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet on the Nintendo Switch now.
Dead Island 2 just got delayed… again
In what is probably expected news to any Dead Island fan, Dead Island 2 has been delayed. The game was originally supposed to come out in 2015 and over the years it has switched hands and moved between multiple developers finally landing in the lap of Dambuster Studios. Dead Island 2 was originally slated to release in February 2023, and instead, the game now has a release date of April 28, 2023 as you can read in the tweet above. Of course, delays are not a bad thing, we will just have to wait for a little while longer to see if they have actually managed to pull it off.
Goat Simulator 3 is here and so is Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC
The releases are stacking up as Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet are already releasing today but so are The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PC, while Goat Simulator 3 released yesterday. You can read our review for The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me here. Goat Simulator 3 is apparently just as silly as its predecessor, and as we said above Pokémon is a little buggy. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is the latest Sony game to be making its way to PC, and the PlayStation version of the game received an 85 on Metacritic. So there is something for everyone to play this week if you are so inclined.
Activision Blizzard locks down their games in China
After failing to come to an agreement to renew their contract with NetEase, Activision Blizzard games will no longer be playable in China. The following titles are set to be suspended in China starting in January, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch 2, StarCraft, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm. Most Blizzard games have been licensed with NetEase in China for the last 14 years, so this will be a big deal for players in China. It has not been announced whether the contract negotiations were impacted by Activision Blizzard’s recent acquisition news, as they are being acquired by Microsoft which has been contentious in and of itself.
The next Supermassive Games title has been released
The Dark Pictures Anthology series has followed a trend that when one of the games finishes, another is immediately teased at the end of the game and that has not changed with the newest entry in the franchise The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me, which as we mentioned earlier was released today. Keep in mind that if you do not wish to know anything about the upcoming game, please do not continue reading as spoilers will follow.
The next game in the franchise will be a science fiction story, called The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020. After dealing with the supernatural on Earth for their last several games, Supermassive Games will be venturing into outer space for their next adventure. Their games have been following a yearly release schedule since the first game in the series in 2019, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, so we might see the upcoming game in 2023.
This was our latest gaming roundup, check back tomorrow for more gaming news.